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heh, true, but it is nice to know that a solid state MP3 device like this one can take a super beating. While I doubt anyone would do this intentionally, accidents do happen. I've dropped my Zen a few times, but it still works just fine. I just dropped mine on the carpet though.

the harddrives can only withstand like a 3ft drop to a hard surface, i can sort of back that up so be careful. im surprised there isnt more drive padding inside ipods, theyre in there rigidly with minimal stiff rubber to pad.

Reminds me of when I stress-tested an Mac SE and an IBM PC Junior. The SE's integrated CRT failed awfully quickly, but the PC Junior survived about a 10m tumble from a 3rd floor fire escape (once, it did NOT work on the second try).

But yeah... being mostly solid state (with the exception of the LCD) probably makes the things pretty easy to make durable.

Indeed, water did seem to seep through every part of the nano, including the precious screen, but after some drying and not too many stupid moves (I don't know that I would have plugged it in immediately while it still had water inside), the nano was able to dry out enough to make a full recovery.

Heh, I guess I'm not terribly surprised. Solid state items can survive a good dousing if you let them dry out well enough. My uncle had his pager drop into the toilet (thankfully a clean bowl), and it worked for years afterwards.

In high school I was present when a friend of mine (against my advice) threw a bucket of water on a faultly fire-control system board. It was, he claimed, 'driving him crazy' with a noise it was producing (the noise indicated that it required maintainance). It definitely did not like being soaked. All the little LEDs went from Green to Amber to Red, and the fire strobes and sirens began flashing and sounding (albiet not continuously). Amazingly, when it dried out it was OK.

I also had a friend who had taken a (not-ruggedized) laptop canoing. He capsized in a river in Northern Maine and completely soaked it. He had, brilliantly, been keeping the battery removed from the laptop.

After two days in a food dehyrator, it worked fine too. As I understand it, most solid-state devices are really only hurt by corrosion (assuming they have no power going trhough them) if they remain submerged for too long.

Yeah, I've soaked my various cell phones time and time again. Lost one skiing once and someone picked it up. Called my friend (who I was skiing with) and asked for me. It probably spent about 2 hrs in the snow but was fine.